More than 450,000 people have urged Iain Duncan Smith to try and live on £53 a week (Picture: Getty)

Iain Duncan Smith’s office will today be handed a petition from more than 450,000 people calling on him to live on £53 a week.

The work and pensions secretary was challenged to live on the sum for a year by market trader David Bennett after he claimed he could while defending changes to the benefits system.

It later emerged Mr Bennett receives benefits that help bring his income up to £150-a-week.

The petition was started by shopworker Dominic Aversano who ‘never imagined’ the level of support it would get. ‘It has sent a powerful message to this government, showing the level of opposition to their vicious welfare cuts,’ he added.

‘It’s now nearly half a million strong and it’s telling that he continues to ignore such an enormous outpouring of anger and disapproval.’

Wheelchair user Heather Simpson, 46, from Battersea, south London, was worried she will be affected by the so-called ‘bedroom tax’. She said: ‘I signed the petition because I want Iain Duncan Smith to live on £53 per week so in future he might not be so quick to dismiss the challenges faced by the people living in poverty.’

Prime minister David Cameron yesterday said the welfare shake-up was ‘putting fairness back at the heart of Britain’.

Chancellor George Osborne, who was criticised after linking the case of child killer Mick Philpott to welfare, also claimed his views were in tune with most of the country.

Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman said it was devising a policy linking benefits to past contributions.